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North Korea fires off missiles

North Korea fired several short-range missiles off its west coast on Friday, a day after Pyongyang kicked out South Korean officials working at a joint industrial complex, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. Nathalie Tourret reports.

SEOUL - North Korea fired several short-range missiles off its west coast on Friday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.

The move comes a day after North Korea expelled South Korean officials working at a joint industrial complex north of the heavily armed border in retaliation for a hardline stance taken towards Pyongyang by South Korea's new conservative government.

"North Korea is understood to have shot several missiles, seen as short-range, in the West Sea (Yellow Sea)," Yonhap cited a government source as saying.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to comment on the report.

President Lee Myung-bak's government, in office barely a month, has pushed the touchy and destitute North to clean up its human rights record, repatriate its citizens held by the communist state and make progress on nuclear disarmament.

The North, one of the world's most militarised states, has warned in its official media that conservative elements in the South were undermining warming ties on the peninsula.